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Notice of AleXis 

E. V. 




Baltimobe, Monday, May 9, 1859, 
\To the Editor of the New-York Times : 

Wben AL2XIS de Tocqueville died, France lost 
a great and good man. Born of the highest old 
juobility of his country, endowed with a genius 
igraad, comprehensive, accurate, his nobleness of 
heart and justice of soul cast into comparative 
'shade the brigLtest attributes of birth and intel- 
lect. But when he died France was not the only 
sufferer ; nor was it Frenchmen alone who raised 
the funeral wail. He was of the world, to the 
world of feeling and of intelligence he belonged, 
and all who were acquainted with his delicate, sen- 
sitive nature, who saw, ever unenviously, how 
gracefully and modestly he bore the early-won 
laurel on his unspotted brow— all, Frenchman orj 
foreigner, who ever met him, must have joined in 
one deep lament. ' 

I knew M. dk Tocqueville well. He was one! 
of ray dearest friends. When our acquaintance 
began, and under what circumstances, I do not; 
Temeaiber, it was so long ago. To no man living 
am I indebted as I was to him. Gratitude, then,| 
and a desire to tell Americans, whom he loved and 
served, somewhat of one known to most of them 
only by a single work, but a man among the fore' 
3t of his age, induce me to send you this sin I 
e and humble tribute to his memory. j 

You will soon receive from Europe — from Eng- ' 
lard as from France— ample and eloquent memo- 
rials of his heart and genius, written by hands 
iafiniteiy more skillful than mine. The French 
Academy, the Academy of Moral and Political 
Sciences, and other bodies, of which he was a 
dearly cherished and honored member, wijl pour 
forth a note of sorrow and admiration, not less 
mournful and sincere than that which lately tolled 
tiie departure of America's great Historian. But 
none, perhaps, of all those who will pay the well- 
deserved offering of friendship and praise to one' of 
the worthiest sons of France, better understood or 
mor5 highly prized his moral qualities, than did he 
w?io would now bear witness to his surpassing 

celience. 

i'ew, if any, cf these v^ho perchance may read 
■these words, can tell who wrote them ; but you, 
Bvho are acquainted with their author, will be able 
:o answer for his fidelity. 

The portrait of my lost friend is now before mej 
md on(* more, before descjibing such ajjerfec' 



Ipreserice as was his, I gaze upon its life-like pre- 
|sentment sorrowfully indeed. 
! Notwithstanding M. de Tocqueville was no 
longer young, it was only within a few years that 
the thick, glossy, wavy Jjlack hair, v\fhich adorned 
a magnificent forehead, became tinged, and that 
rather by the finger of sickness than of time. 
Full, dark eyes, betokening honesty and firmness, 
yet alrftost overflowing with benevolence approac^"- 
ing woman's tenderness, reminded one ui me 
couiage of Louis XVI.'s gallant defc.iJer, LI^., 
SSH2&BE?, whose heart's blood lived by inlierit- 
ance in Lis heart, and of an affection which only 
one huiaan Being ever felt for min, and that 
EeiHg more than mortal. A beautifully-form ^ 
nose, a mouth with well-curved lips, full ar .. 
resolute, exquisitely perfect teeth, and a roui.d, 
strong chin, completed a face an^ expression 
replete with the beauty of intellect and feature. 
It was a wonderful and faithful exponent of a 
woisderfiill}^ faithful and well-proportioned combi- 
nation of heart and head. From long-continued iu 
health, (for five or six years ago his life was sorely 
threatened by the malady which has since proved 
fatal,) or from some other cause, my fnVnd h""^ 
contracted the habit of slightly stooping, wHch a 
veiy ordii^.ary stature could ill afforu. But 
spirit he never stooped. To Mm, on the contrary, 
so far as one gentleman could do so to another, 
did the most exalted personage in the l?rd s^^op 
to gain him to his views and purposes, but failed 
in the attempt. When, as attendant on .he fa- 
moo? coup d'etat of Dec. 2, 1851, a crowd of Rep- 
resentatives — the noblest by birth, the bravest in 
arms, the most reHOwned in letters, whose glory 
was the boast of France — were paiaded Jox miles 
on foot, through mud and mire, beneath a driz- 
zling wintr)' sky, to be thrust pell-mell into public 
receptacles for malefactors, it was to the house of 
M. DS Tocqueville alone, so far as ever came to 
my knowledge, (and I was upon the spot,) that the 
aufhor of that untoward act — in which, I am per- 
suaded, his underlings, exceeding their authority, 
grossly erred — sent an accredited ' agent of 
highest dignity to apologize for the out- 
rage perpetrated against him individually. Of 
this apology no acknowledgment was ever 
made ; and, at a later day, when in an offi- 
cial capacity, he was compelled formally to 
I address the Emperor at the ceremonious opening 



of a new railway, and was. greeted with these gra 
cious words : " Now, Monsieur le Maire, that rail- 
ways have done so much to approximate places, 
why should not individuals, also, hitherto es- 
tranged, be drawn nearer to each other?" The 
&ole return was one in perfect accordance with a 
disposition incapable of useless or insulting aggres- 
sion, and insensible alike to flattery or force. 
Without one uttered word, a simple bow, indicat- 
ive of proper respect for the chief magistrate of his 
country, but also of mournful despair of a lime to 
come for that country's freedom, told the disap- 
pciuted sovereign that between the body's durance 
and the spirit's thraldom there is, as he himself 
from painful experience ftiight have known, a 
world-wide difference— that between the destroyer 
of a people's liberties and the defender of their 
rights there is a gulf impassable. , 

And here I would remark, in passing, that un- 
due censure has been cast upon Frenchmen — fore- 
most in rank and talent—because they refuse to 
serve Napoleon III. They do so, not that he is a 
usurp-er — Louis Philippe was a usurper, and 
yet the beat talent in the country was at liis com- 
mand — but that to sustain him in camp or council 
their feet would necessarily tread upon a holy 
thing, which he himself has trampled in the dust. 
Men like M. be Tocqpetille, as I have heard him 
declare of himself, would gladly recognize any 
mere form of government, provided that beneath 
that foim the real presence and substance of lib- 
erty were preserved. 

During a portion of the presidency of Louis 
Kapolsojt, he had been Minister for Foreign Af- 
fairs — Prime Minister, that is, so far as any one 
was permitted to be. Admired and liked by that 
astute judge of human character, he, in his turn, 
not a whit less acute, having frequent oppor- 
tunity in almost daily intercourse, was able 
to form an estimate of that remarkable 
man, which, as once communicated to me of his 
o-\\ii accord, and repeated at my solicitation, time 
has confirmed and is every day confirming. The 
only features of the Lnperial portrait thus drawn 
wliich I am at liberty to transcribe, are that for 
large, general and comprehensive state views and 
conduct the present ruler of France, if equaled by 
any one, is surpassed by none, but that for details 
he is weak, wavering and inefficient. Although 
regarding him as a curse, permitted by Providence 
to rest a moral and intellectual incubus upon a 
devoted country for a certain time ; although feel- 
ing, but far less keenly, the personal indignities 
lie had hhnselt suffered at the Imperial hand, never 
was he known to be guilty of one unbecoming 
expression against tha occupant of the French 
tlirone. He spoke of him in a wonderful spirit of 
foibearance, as a great man of our day would 
speak of some other great man who flourished in 
■tha eighteenth century. 



Whether it be owing to prejudice, grounded in 
'ducation, or;, to non-community of blood, reli- 
3 ion and language, the truth is that Englishmen 
-and Americans look on Frenchmen as unstable in 
affection, inconstant in design, uncertain in action, 
unworthy of confidence. Many years of my life 
have been passed among them, and from personal 
experience I can declare, being no stranger amid 
I other peoples, that there exists not a race of men 
on earth more loving, faithful, and, in frieudship's 
service, more devoted and untiring than that which 
inhabits the land of the Gaul. In more than one 
instance which I could cite, Americans have found 
warmel- friends and more enduriag affection in 
Frarice than ever fell to their lot iuthe country of 
their b:r;li. 

; M, D£ Tocorsvirrw xx-nc o ^.-■-•^- -•- _ , . 
such friemia. I have kno-.vn him at a very 
early morning hour, his time for labor, an hour 
■mien the world was sleeping, artd at a period of 
his life when his precanous health made even 
moments of unspeakable value to him and to 
others — I have known him cheerfully to sacifice 
an entire day to rescue from trouble one of our 
countrymen, who had no imperative claim upon 
his kind oflices. I have known him to rise from 
the bed of sickness and pain to beg a favor of an 
Imperial dignitary for an American, when even 
to approach,^xcept socially, one of the Imperial 
Court, was almost self-degradation in his eyes. 
Nor was he content merely to ask and trust. The 
Imperialist officer, too happy to court by 
"obliging such a man, readily promised to send the 
required document so soon as it could be executed. 
" No," replied the faithful friend, who was well 
aware of time's value in the desperate case, 
and hoped that his presence would insure dis- 
patch, " I will await its completion." And, ill as 
he w^as, he did await it, and the next post bore it 
on its way to save the innocent from a heavy ca- 
lamity. 

In manner, M. de Tocquevillk was calm, suf- 
ficiently animated, but never declamatory. He in- 
dulged in no gesticulation, no extravagance of 
language, no extreme or speculative opinions. His 
words flowed copiously, yet moderately and unin- 
terruptedly, like crystal waters from a silver foun- 
tain. He was a constant visitor at my house, 
where others, hardly infeiior in fame, were al- 
ways glad to meet him ; and often has the thought 
occurred to me, how great must be the esteem of 
all these men— each eminent iu his own special- 
ty — for this one unassuming individual, wheu, the 
moment he begins to speak, they become mute, 
wondering listeners. His intelligence — intelli- 
gence taken in its largest sense — was complete. 
I have seen him uncer trying circumstances, 
when instant action wes necessary, when a mis- 
take might have been fatal, when nervausness 
might have excused a blunder, and ne ver dji^ hi 
judgment falter or fail. Like Colji 




prehensible talent in mathematics, like Mospuys 
unparalleled genius in chess, he arrived, as it were 
by intuition, at a conclusion which never proved 
wrong. Wisdom, the result of exferience and re- 
flection, had become in him almost the gift of 
prophecy. Who that ever heard or read, can for- 
get those s€er-lilve words of his, made ever memo- 
rable by the catastrophe which followed, when, 
alone foreseeing the storm so criminally 
evoked bj Louis Philipps, he cried aloud amid a 
host of bribed hu clings, of worthless, time-serving 
adherents of that besotted King — " Sirs, do you 
nbt sse the black cloud approaching ? Do you not 
hear the muttering of the near thunder ? Lo ! the 
bolt is even now suspended over your heads ! 
Within a year — a month — what do I say? v/ithin 
a week, or a day, it may fall and crush you ! " In 
less than three weeks from the utterance of these 
unheeded words. King Louis Philippe had fled 
the land, his Government were escaping though 
no one pursued, and wreck and ruin covered the 
face of France. 

After the accession of Napoleon IIL to the 
throne, M. de Tocqustillb devoted himself en- 
tirely to literary labor, to him a true labor of love. 
His last work, L'Ancten Regime et la Revolution, 
a work too little known in America, is, in the 
opinion of judicious critics, hardly equaled by any 
other of our day for "originality of view, care and 
independence of research, the habit of proving 
everything, assuming nothing, and for a fascinating, 
genial, and consummate wisdom. The style of it 
—including in this word the thoughts as well as 
the mere language— is faultless. We can do lit- 
tle," adds the Edinburgh Review, which I am quot- 
ing. " but sit at the feet of GamalieUo listen and 
to learn." 

Wise even in youth, of surpassing wisdom in 
maturer jears, with a loving heart and kindly dis- 
position, earnest in the pursuit of truth, devoted to 
man's freedom, always ready to sacrifice self, con- 
demning and warring against injustice, however 
high its source, uncomplaining when the victim of 
it himself, can it be wondered at that such a man 
—that Alexis de Tocqueyille was adored by 
friends, courted by the world, and had no enemy — 
that the good he did lives after him, while no evil 
remains to be interred with his bones ? E. V. c. 



if. ».— Bince writing the above lines lae jour- 
nal des Dehats, of April 19, has been received by 
me, and I translate from it the following article ; 

" We have most mournful tidings to anaounce : M. 
Alexss de TocauEvitLS, whose death has been prema- 
turely reported in the papers, expired last Saturday 
evening at Carmss, where he had been passing the 
Winter. 

M. DE TccQUEViLiE was only 53 years of age. His 
last days were calm and peace/ul. Never to the last 
moment of his life did he cfase from study and labor, 
in the preparation of his second volume upon the ad- 
ministrative and political condition of Franse before 
the Revolution. Even to the latest hour of Ms exis- 
tence did he devote his Christian and courageous 
soul to the dulies of life. 'Although the delicacy of 
M. »2! TccwaviiiK's health, especially for several 
years last past, condemned him to extraordinary pre- 
cautions, so firm an* free was his spirit, so generous 
and vigorous were the sentiments which animated 
his heart, that one could not but indulge the hope of 
seeing the moral force in hioi surmounting physical 
debOity. And, indeed, it was scarcely a month ago 
that aa urexpected improvement seemed likely to 
conflrnE, this hope. Bat, alas, the illusion was cruelly 
dlsceUed — M. »a TocQiJEVttJ.s is no more '. 

Trie two Academies to which he belonged— the 
French Academy and the Academy of Moral and Po- 
litical Sciences — in losing him have experienced an 
irreparable loss. As writer, publicist, thinker, M, 
DE TccQUBvn.i.B stood among the very best of the 
most distinguished men of our time. No one can for- 
get the brilliant success which attended the appear- 
ance of the two first volumes of his great work upon 
the United States of America, and many persons at- 
tribute a still higher rank to the ' C onsiderations upon 
the Condition of France before the Revolution of 
1769,' already alluded to, written with a hand en- 
feebledby sickness and now so fatally Interrupted by 
death. 

But the present is not a suitable moment for be- 
stowing the due meed of praise upon th« talent of M. 
DB ToowEviiiE, and upon those works which have 
rendered his name and memory forever illustrious. 
Nor would we now sp^ak of his political and parlia- 
mentary career ; but no one can be ignorant of the 
disinterestedness, the elevation of character, the 
pureness of patriolisra which marked his public life. 
As a public man and authsr we will speak of him 
hereafter, but to-day in publishing the sad tidings of 
ids decease, we cannot refrain from joinlag our grief 
to the grief of his family and friends, nor from de- 
ploring a loss which deprives Frantse of one of those 
men whose places can never be filled." 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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